Liko is an endless source of energy which adds to the anxiety I'm having when she gets spayed tomorrow. I researched and read about hernias that can develop, stitches ripping open, and other horror stories and I'm just wondering if anyone has any suggestions on what activities I can do with her to stimulate her during this 10 day recovery period. Fetching and running is ruled out so what exactly is left? She is used to hour long walks and full dog on dog play at the dog park at least four times a week along with a weekly day long doggie daycare session where I always get the "she played soooooo much" comment. What can I do to keep her from tearing my house apart in boredom :/ (which she hasn't attempted yet surprisingly)? Thanks guys for all the help you've already thrown my way.

An expen in the common area of the house, "smart" toys like puzzles and frozen kongs filled with low calorie goodies, etc. this will be an awesome chance to do some really fun mentally challenging training and games with her. She can still go for mild leashed walks. Be sure to cut her food back by about 30% for the recovery period while her metabolism adjusts to the loss of hormones and while she is inactive. Most of her food can be given in a slow release puzzle toy to keep her busy. Good luck!

I bookmarked this article for when Navi gets spayed. She is the same as Liko- full of energy so I'm also worried!!! Its pretty much what lindsayt suggested, but goes into more detail & suggestions for different games & training..

I had Juni spayed in the spring, she is 2 yrs old and very energetic. She was in pain after the operation, especially the first couple of days, it is a big operation after all, and there was absolutely no run or play in her, all she wanted to do was sleep and rest.

From what I've heard the metabolism change is not only post-op but for the rest of their lives, that's what the vets say here anyways. Juni is still skinny as ever though.

Bootz and Jackie knocked out the day of and the day after their spay. They didnt even want to eat. Just rest, rest and more rest! Although by the 3rd day they were back to normal. I got them spayed around 6 months and they recovered rather quickly.

Like Lindsayt mentions, lots of mentally challenging activities to tire them out since you can't tire them out physically. Make sure to stop the Shiba 500s!

I just got my boy Bear spayed and had your worries going in, especially at 10 months old and no crate training. He was very lethargic for a couple days after surgery. We took lots of short leash walks and just monitored him. We made sure he didn't lick his incision or get it wet. Our vet is very good and everything is fine. After 14 days I think he will be healed enough I would consider letting him back at the dog park. after 7 he was doing well enough to go back to agility class with adaptions for lower jumps and controlled speeds.

@Navi thanks for the article and thanks everyone else for their input! Haha youtube'd the toy in blanket...cute stuff and definitely going to be doing that. I'm hoping I'm just building this more into than what it really is.

@melzskeez it is hard not to worry about everything that can go wrong, especially when it is our precious Shibas! Trust your vet, trust yourself, and I am sure it will all go well. And yes, it is very fun to watch them search for their precious toys in the blanket, so give it a try as she starts to recover and is looking to play.

Ah, Tatonka is cryptorchid (I call him Uniball, Lance, etc.) and he's scheduled to get neutered on Thursday. His surgery will involve them cutting into him to get the undescended testicle. He's gonna be pissed as he's been having so much fun "being grown up" lately. Life is a long happy string of buttholes and genitals and humpadumpadoo. He gives both gals and dudes a lot of pervy attention so I wonder what he'll be like..

I'm going to use the tips in this thread to keep him occupied. I think Tatonka might be overstimulated: daycare every day + dog park + 2 walks so hanging out with his least favorite human (me) all day might be a total bummer.

I've taken Friday and Monday off work. Do you guys think 4 days is enough?

How old is Tonka? What does Tonka usually do when you are at work? If he doesn't lick his incision for the 4 days...I think it should be fine. But if he's a licker...you might want to take more days off to avoid him licking his stitches...which will lead to an infection.

@Tatonka, with Tonka's more extensive surgery, be prepared to put him in a cone--and do so--if he shows any signs of messing with his incision. While everybody hates the cone, it's better than cone + staples. [Been there, done that and it was just a regular neuter.]

Oh it's terrible when you pick them up after surgery, poor little things looking all miserable. Juni was just moaning and could not lie down if I wasn't holding her. For the entire night...she bumped into stuff with the cone and got stuck. The next day I bought an inflatable collar instead (looking like those neck cushions for airplane travel). Such a relief, she could move around, could reach to lick other areas but just not the stitches and the collar came in handy as a cushion too.

@Bootz, he's 8.5 months and always at daycare when I work. Regarding licking he does like licking his pintu A LOT so licking a few inches next to it isn't out of realm of probability. I will watch him like a hawk.

@WendyNC oh ya I'm definitely putting him in a cone. Seeing him feel shame will be totally hilarious and good revenge for zero cuddling. Ha ha. Plus he can direct his dirty looks to white plastic cone around his dome vs against me.

On a side note, Tatonka overwhelmingly prefers guy dogs (even neutered ones) to girls/un-spayed girls. He's a pretty friendly guy (maybe too friendly!) but he never humps people and never shows any aggression or frustration when pursuing/obsessed with another dog. There's a lot of kissing, etc.

People at the dog park always call it "dominance" which I guess they do to explain things in a way that makes them comfortable, but to me it seems like dogs are generally omnisexual and share their excitement widely.

Some might call it "excitement" but he doesn't seem to hump random dogs - to my untrained eye there seems to be quite a bit of deliberate courting/foreplay before he gets his hump on.

Tatonka certainly is an unapologetic swinger. Dumping dogs on the spot, running after newcomers, leaving lots of whining dogs around.

I'm not sure why I'm telling you this but you guys know your Shibas and I'm worried he's going to change from this crazy exciting spark of a dog to a depressed pooch.

Charlie's 7 months and we had him neutered last Thursday. He just began feeling better last night! It took him more than the norm to start getting back to his old self but I just think he was depressed about the cone he had to wear. I was looking up the inflatable collar at Petco and Petsmart but decided against it since he'll only be wearing it for a few more days and the thing is around $20+. It didn't seem worth it to me.

Now I know what you guys mean by the "cone of shame." Liko looked downright depressed when she came out with that thing on. My friend lent me her doughnut collar (@juni you can order it on amazon for way cheaper than the pet store...look up kong cloud e-collar or contech procollar) and it fits her way more comfortably. She did end up getting it off during the night though (not on purpose I think she got stuck under the couch).

First night she slept all the way through and today she's back to herself which is what I was scared of. How do you keep them from jumping on the couch and putting strain on the sutures? Its only a foot and a half high but it freaks me out every time I find her on there. Also is that killer move shake they do with their toys too much movement? They sent her home with Rimadyl...too bad that stuff doesn't get them drowsy haha.

My vet said that the stitches hold more than you think, so she said not too worry too much about it if she would be able to do à jump. Of course us worried parents watched over her like a hawk just to be on the safe side.@tatonka I'm not so sure the inflatable collar would work so well for the stitches from a neuter anyways because they can reach some areas still with it.

@tatonkaSeconding Juni about the inflatable collar. We tried it with Zim and the first thing he did (after trying to get it off) was start licking his incision. He was way too flexible for it and had to be coned.

@Tatonka, you're cracking me up with stories about Tatonka! Esp. how he has a bit of courtship before he gets his hump on! *lol* And he's an unapologetic swinger! *lol*

I thought of this yesterday because I'd just pulled my Kai puppy off the girl Shiba yet again, and was feeling sorry for her--sometimes she has to sit down repeatedly on her way somewhere to stop his constant attention--and then I turned around, and she was vigorously humping Leo. *sigh* Dogs.

(And I know this has little to do with the spaying, but it did make me laugh)

Back on topic, I did a lot of puzzle games with Bel when she was in a much longer recovery from torn ACL/LP surgery. She's super quick with the puzzles, so I had to think of lots of things to keep her entertained, but she was also an older dog (6) and was in enough pain, I think, that she wasn't really trying to move around. And one thing the vet told me was that the pain meds not only are good at controlling pain, but at keeping the dog sedated and relatively inactive. (of course, in our case, she got wired from the tramadol, so that wasn't real helpful, but in theory it helps!)

He got some liquid pain medication (METACAM) I need to administer once per day. He also got some anti-crazy pills (ACEPROMAZINE) which I'll skip on since I can calm him down and he's a proficient pill spitter. He could easily fit into a black tie ball dance with that collar but I'm guessing he won't wanna do anything like that :)

the ace really is an anti crazy pill. Apparently, it's an anti psychotic, related to thorazine.

It's not a great sedative, actually, because apparently dogs still feel the fear, but they can't do anything about it, and they are also more sensitive to noise when using Ace. That said, I use it, because it's one of the few things we can use with Bel, because other sedatives (valium, xanax) amp her up something fierce. I always call her my little crazy girl, but you know, it is kind of scary that an anti-pyschotic drug works so well on her! :lol:

Poor Tatonka, have to say that picture in the cone really made me laugh though.

Our vet didn't send us home with any medications or the cone of shame. Bear had a special pain injection post surgery (was an extra charge we chose) that was designed to last about 24 hours and had a antibiotic shot, so he didn't need pills after. The vet also said we didn't need the cone of shame unless we caught him licking his area and then we could always run to the pet store and pick one up. Bear did try to sneak some licks in, but was very good actually overall in not licking the spot and stopped when we gave him the corrective ack ack (no no) sound. He also never seemed in pain even when laying down on his stomach.

I hope you have as much luck and Tatonka heals quickly. It is now two weeks for Bear and he looks to be back 100% with a fully healed incision and no issues.

So I will post a photo of this if I can catch it in action on my iPhone, but.. Tatonka has started to put both paws on his cone to rip it off of his head. He understands which direction the cone pops off. He rears up on his back legs and tries to push the cone off with his front paws which are free.

He figured this out after he was having some paw/head-in-cone coordination issues to get a bone in his mouth. He moves the bone first where his mouth will be then scoops it up with his mouth. I guess he kind of tries to punt it into the cone.

Since I'm (marginally) smarter than him, I replaced the makeshift gauze rope that holds the cone in place with a nylon collar that sits tight around his neck (I can still put in two fingers between his neck and the collar). So when he executes this move, he doesn't get it off and the Elizabethan Collar is too robust for him to just destroy it.

I feel like he's going to hurt himself though. Has anyone else experienced this?

resurrecting this thread:Rose got spayed 4 days ago.She is doing great and acting like basically nothing happened. The incision looks good and she's not a licker.But she has sooooo much energy. Walking like 5 miles a day with her haha and it's still not enough. She gets the zoomies mid walk and is like flying around me at max leash range...The puzzle toys and training etc help and she is sleeping a lot but my goodness... she is trying her best to pop her stomach incision open...

@carterpelham - Considering it's only been 4 days since the surgery, I think 5 miles is a bit too much in terms of how much physical activity she should be having. Until her sutures are removed, try your best to minimize the amount of running/zoomies that she's having. It's tough but you have to in order for it to heal correctly. Tali's brother got neutered last week and he was running around at full speed 5 days after the surgery. Popped a stitch and it became infected so now it's taking double the amount of time to heal correctly.

The puzzles and training does help and perhaps you could teach her things like "settle" and "focus" to calm her down when she is amped up.